Elementary vice principal sought in five deaths

[Honeykiss1974]

Elementary vice principal sought in five deaths
Wednesday, July 9, 2003 Posted: 8:14 AM EDT (1214 GMT)



BAKERSFIELD, California (AP) -- A nationwide manhunt was under way for an elementary school vice principal considered a possible suspect in the shooting deaths of five people, including his estranged wife and children.

The FBI and law enforcement agencies across the country were asked to help search for Vincent Brothers, 41, after police discovered the three children, their mother and grandmother dead Tuesday morning in their Bakersfield home.

Police Capt. Neil Mahan said Wednesday that Brothers became a possible suspect based on witness statements, crime scene information and details about his prior behavior. He said more information would be released later in the day.

"That does not mean we are not looking at other angles," Mahan told ABC's "Good Morning America." Asked whether Brothers had fled, Mahan said "Mr. Brothers did have travel plans during this time frame."

Brothers' blue pickup was found Tuesday, but police would not say where.

The victims were identified by the Kern County coroner as Joanie Harper, 39; Harper's three children, Marques Harper, 4; Lindsey Harper, 23 months; and Marshall Harper, 1 1/2 months; and Harper's mother, Earnestine Harper, 70.

Police described Brothers and Harper as married but separated. The two were seeking an annulment, but it was unclear Tuesday whether a judge had approved it.

Brothers is the father of the children and had periodically lived with the family, said Darren Dixon, 22, a nephew of Earnestine Harper.

Police were called to the home at 6:55 a.m. Tuesday by a friend who had gone to check on the family. The bodies of Joanie Harper and her three children were found in a bedroom; Earnestine Harper was in another room.


Police investigate the house where the bodies were found.
Neighbors said the streets have been noisy with firecrackers for days because of the July 4 holiday so gunshots might have gone unnoticed.

The neighborhood has a reputation for gang activity, but friends and family described the family as active in the community and very religious.

The family was last seen alive Sunday morning at church. They ordinarily attended both morning and afternoon services at the local Church of Christ, but didn't show up in the afternoon, Dixon said. "It's shocking," he said.

Joanie Harper was a standout high school basketball player who worked with troubled children and refereed NCAA Division I basketball games, said Dixon. He said he saw no friction in her relationship with Brothers and didn't see any potential for violence.

Mahan also said there was no indication of violence in the relationship.

"She liked him a lot. He was a very nice guy," Dixon said.

But Brothers has had a history of marital difficulties, according to court records and police.

Two previous marriages ended quickly, and he and Joanie Harper formally separated less than two weeks after their marriage in January 2000. He cited "irreconcilable differences," while she checked "nullification based on fraud" as the reason she wanted a divorce.

Still, they stayed involved in each other's lives and even lived together at times, friends and family members said.

In one earlier marriage, Brothers was convicted of spousal abuse, police said. In his 1992 marriage, his wife filed for a restraining order, saying Brothers "is violent and has threatened to kill me."

Brothers worked at Emerson Middle School, across the street from where the victims were found, from 1989 to 1996. He started as a teacher and worked his way up to vice principal, said Michael Lingo, an assistant superintendent with the Bakersfield City School District.

Since 1996, he has been an administrator at Fremont Elementary School, which has more than 1,000 students from pre-kindergarten through sixth grade.



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